Electronic marketplaces, such as those accessible via the Internet, may include a catalog of items or products available for purchase. These items may be offered as the basis for commerce (e.g., sale or trade). In one example, customers may utilize a web browser to visit a merchant's website, select an item for purchase from the catalog, and engage in a checkout process to finalize an order for the item. The merchant may operate a fulfillment network including various facilities in order to process such orders. For instance, the merchant may include a facility that prepares shipments of purchased items. A shipment carrier may acquire such shipments from the merchant and deliver the shipments to the respective purchasing customers.
The facilities operated by the merchant may include various fulfillment processes for fulfilling orders submitted by customers. These processes may operate on items to perform various tasks, such as preparing items for shipment. At one or more points in these processes, items must be physically picked up from one location, for example, from a conveyor belt, and placed onto another location, such as onto another conveyor belt or into a sorting bin or a shipment box. The present invention is directed to providing an automatic picking system and method for use in a materials handling facility, which are capable of reliably and adaptively picking up items of various types such as items having various shapes, sizes, hardness, etc.
While the system and method for picking products or items are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the system and method for picking products or items are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the system and method for picking items or products to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the scope of the system and method for picking items or products as defined in the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.